How Does the Story End? Best Practices in Closing Down a Scholar-led Diamond OA Journal (online)

In recent years, the development of best practices in scholar-led Diamond Open Access saw much information collected in the form of guidelines and published handouts on how best to operate a scholar-led journal. The focus in this supporting material lies mostly on the start and running of a journal; there is little guidance on how best to close one down. This talk addresses this question. How can editors and hosting services best prepare for the end of their journal, what timeframe makes sense, what communication steps need to be taken and how can hosting services best collaborate with editors during this process. The talk is based on the experience of Bern Open Publishing, which currently hosts 23 scholar-led Diamond Open Access journals. The BOP Team sent a survey to the editors about their needs and exit strategies; at the same time, BOP sketched out the technical and administrative parameters of the process from the hosting side. This includes checking the legal as well as the administrative, communicative and technical requirements for wrapping up a journal’s publishing activities on BOP. The talk is intended to stimulate a discussion with editorial boards and to collect further input for best practices when we need to manage the end of a Diamond OA journal.

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